BUT YOU DIDN'T
by vatsalpuma
Summary: Based on a poem by the same name, story of how Sakura looks back into her life with a little regret, a little pain. ONE-SHOT


**BUT YOU DIDN'T**

I read this poem just today and changed it somehow into this one shot, hope you guys like it. It is kind of AU, without a proper timeline… but just feel the story.

"SAKURA POV"

" _Narrator speaks"_

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 _Now a seventy year old Sakura sat on her wheelchair looking out of the window of her two storied home. She snuggled into the shawl she had draped over her shoulders thinking back about the days when she was just a young maiden, with her head full of dreams and a blindfold over her eyes…_

 _She remembered a day when she was sixteen, a week after Naruto had returned from the training trip with Lord Jiraiya…_

Naruto stood in the middle of Training Ground 7, practicing his Kenjutsu. In his hand was what looked like an expensive and a very high end katana; its blade unmarked silver and its handle was blue and golden yellow with flash over the Uzumaki swirl on its hilt. He saw me approaching him and stopped going through the katas. He gave me a trademark smirk and said, "Ohayo Sakura-chan. It has been a long time…" I thought he would ask me for a date but "… how about a spar?" he said excitedly. I looked at him and then saw the sword in his hands. I asked him how he got his hands on a sword that good. He replied, "Ero-sannin told me about my parents a week ago… this was the sword used by my mother, I only got it yesterday…" almost bitter-sweetly. I smiled slightly at this and agreed to the spar. We went from warm-ups to basic taijutsu and weapons. It was during this that he whipped out his sword and charged at me. With the reverse side of the sword, he slashed at me so as to not hurt me too badly. I out of reflex caught it with my palms. He kept the pressure on me and to balance out I started pushing chakra into my palms until ' **SNAP** ' was heard. I got down from my battle high and looked at Naruto. In his hands were the broken half of his family sword and the other half lay flung on the ground. I looked at him again, his face and eyes overshadowed by his hair as he staring at the broken sword. Suddenly he looked up, but his eyes never held anything but understanding, "Oh it was an accident Sakura-chan, I am not upset." With that he invited me to Icharaku and we left chatting happily.

 _ **Remember the day I accidently broke you mother's sword?  
I thought you'd kill me, but you didn't.**_

 _Sakura now remembered the time when she was 18. New team 7 with Yamato and Kakashi has finally got a wind of Sasuke's whereabouts. We hurried to the land of rice in hope to intercept Sasuke and finally bring him back to Konoha._

I took a glance towards Naruto who looked very contemplative. We made camp that night after we had reached to the location from where we could ambush the Oto nin easily. Everyone in the team looked ill at ease, after all it was Sasuke we were after. No one looked as bad as Naruto. After everyone fell asleep to prepare for the next day, I still saw Naruto looking up at the starts. I went and sat next to him and nudged him gently with my shoulder and asked what the matter was. "I know it is Sasuke, but after our last meeting I can't help but think whether Sasuke has gone too deep into the ditch to be pulled back…" I gave him a sad understanding look. "… I know you love him, and I will try my best to keep my promise to you, but I just want to say what if…?" I failed to regocnize the sad look in his eyes wasn't due to loss but was due to defeat. The next day we ambushed Team Taka, only for Sasuke to laugh maniacally at the prospect of coming back and putting my whole team on death's door. _ ****_

 _ **And remember the time I didn't believe when you said,  
he was too far gone, and he was?  
I thought you'd say, "I told you so." But you didn't.  
**_

_Now it was a week after they had returned from their retrieval mission. Sakura remembered that dark phase when she had taken to drinking due to her loss of her beloved Sasuke…_

I sat at the bar with another bottle of sake in her hand. Neglecting the saucer, she drank straight from the bottle. I knew I was shit faced drunk but I did not care. I was too sad and kept on remembering the way Sasuke had refused coming back, going deeper into depression everytime. It was nearly midnight and the bartender had refused to sell any more alcohol to me. I got up from the barstool and left for a booze shop for the way home. As I exited the bar, I tripped over the door frame. I braced for a cold hard impact, but it did not come. What came was softness and warmth of a pair of arms that caught me. I looked up to see the bright blue eyes of Naruto. "The bartender called me Sakura-chan… Come on lets go home" he said. He picked me up princess style and made way to his home. When we reached his home, I knew he had opened the door with much trouble with me whining and shouting at him to let me down, the first thing I did was to simply throw up all over him and his floor and pass out. The next morning I woke up with a terrible hangover. I looked around and recognized Naruto's home. I also saw I was in one of Naruto's shirts but my own underwear. I saw a note on the side table saying that there was aspirin and breakfast on the kitchen table; also my clothes were in the dryer as I had threw-up on them. I walked into the living room and saw a wet highly scrubbed patch of carpeting which told me that there was where I had passed out. I sighed, left after changing clothes and breakfast.

 _ **Do you remember the time I was drunk and vomited  
all over your carpet?  
I thought you'd hit me when you met me, but you didn't.**_

 _We now see the events when Sakura was 21. They were going to war, and they knew it, so they planned a get together for their near and dear ones._

I was enjoying the party, if I may call it one. Everyone was there, drinking away their anxiety and enjoying the final moments of peace. I looked around seeing my friends talking to each other, but I couldn't help but feel something was missing from the scene. I thought I was missing Sasuke, yup, that had to be it. Suddenly I heard the door knock. When I opened, I saw a very worn out looking Naruto standing at my doorstep. That is when I realized Naruto was missing from the party. He too looked around and said, "Oh you are having a party, sorry for intruding on your fun…" He was about to turn around when it suddenly went silent when the guests finally got a look at Naruto. He gave them a sheepish smile and said louder than it was necessary "Sorry Sakura-chan I could not attend your party, but I just came here to give this present to you…" and with that he left. Everyone nodded at his words and continued his revelry, when Kakashi sensei came up to me and said, "He sure has matured. He handled the awkward situation rather well do you not agree…" I remembered that I had forgotten to invite Naruto. I remembered the big responsibility he had in the upcoming war and that he was training for 'US' away from the village, and I did not invite him. The next day I saw him waiting for me at the gates and he, with the same sunny smile said, "Ohayo Sakura-chan, I was waiting for you, lets go…"

 _ **And remember the time I forgot to tell you about  
the party and you were there feeling uninvited?  
I thought you'd abandon me, but you didn't.**_

 _The last day of war, the epic battle had raged. Sasuke had apparently helped team 7 to gain victory._

I saw their backs… Our team had finally reunited after so long. I was so ecstatic that day. Then he suddenly turned back and look towards me. "Sakura-chan…" he started but it was forgotten by me when I heard "Sakura I love you" from the mouths of my one and only love, Sasuke. I started crying on hearing it. After so long and after waiting so much I had finally heard those words come out of his mouth. I rushed at him, stopping to catch his exhausted body and carried it towards the medic tent. That time I had totally missed the droopy eyes of Naruto who had just said loud enough for me to hear, with a choked cracked voice "… I fulfilled my promise" and a dull 'thud' of a body falling on the ground. After few weeks Naruto was still helping me get over the trauma of war even though after I now realize that I had ignored him. I had broken him.

 _ **Do you remember the time I chosen the wrong one,  
I ignored you, and you were never even thanked by me?  
I thought you'd have left me, but you didn't.**_

 _Few months after the war, Sasuke and Sakura married. Naruto was the next hokage and was living his dream. It was when the remains of Oto had started acting up. On a personal request Sasuke had asked for that mission. On the other hand Sakura was sitting in the Uchiha clan compound crying on her knees. There were some revelations that day that had shook her world…_

I had begged Sasuke not to ask for that mission. He had simply told her that it was his doing and that he had to be the one to solve it. We both knew that the mission was suicide but what had to be, had to be done. The day when Sasuke left alone for Oto, the same night I rushed into Naruto's office begging him to go help Sasuke on the mission like I had when we were 13 years old, like when Sasuke had betrayed Konoha. What Naruto said shocked me to the core, "Ok Sakura-chan, I will go and help him. You know I can never refuse you" he said chuckling. "It is a promise of a lifetime Sakura-chan that Sasuke will make it back to Konoha, to you." I never understood the depth in his words then. The next day when we were at the gate to see him off, he bid farewell to everyone, which I found peculiar. When he finally came to me he gave me a hug, kissed me chastely on my forehead and simply said, "Sakura your forehead is so wide and charming, it makes me want to kiss it…" as he got up his kyubi cloak and left. It just came to me that all my life, I had pinned after Sasuke because of the same dialogue Naruto had just said. When the realization came to me, I just fell on my knees and wept. All the times Naruto had saved me be it from falling in a pit, be it from Gaara during the chunin exams, be it all the times I had called him annoying, called him names, slugged him in the face or all the times he would sacrifice everything just for my sake, all rushed and flashed infront of my eyes. I just fled from the site, locking myself into my room, I cried…

A week had passed by that event and guilt had started killing me. I had started to see all the times I had simply ignored Naruto and his feelings. It had destroyed me how I had destroyed him. After a week of moping, I had promised myself to beg him for his forgiveness, to talk to him, to appreciate him and his presence as an anchor in my life when the city bells started ringing signaling return. I rushed to the village gates hoping to see them return. After a few minutes I saw a blot on the horizon. As it came nearer, I only saw one figure, the figure in black, with black hair, carrying another one donned in orange. When Sasuke reached the village, it was deathly silent. He laid Naruto on the ground at the gates, where the village could see and mourn. I rushed to check the body in hope to find some signs negative of his death. I found none… Only that one of his fists was clenched tightly shut. I pried it open with deathly silence surrounding me and I hyperventilating, only to find a crumpled piece of paper which said-

' _I fulfilled my promise again, Sasuke will make it back to you'_ I heard a faint whisper continuing the written, _'hopefully now you will love me'_ _****_

_**Yes, there were lots of things you didn't do.  
But you put up with me, and loved me, and protected me.  
There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you  
when you returned from Otogakure…  
But you didn't.**_

 _ **END**_

Hey how did you like it? REVIEW, FOLLOW, FAVOURITE, you know the works. Do check out the original poem by the same name, it is short and sweet but it is beautiful.

THANKS,

VATSAL


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